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IntroductionIn October 2015, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) invited West Memphis, Arkansas, to be a part of the National Public Safety Partnership (PSP). The PSP is a DOJ-wide program that helps participating cities address serious violent crime challenges, over a three-year engagement, by facilitating the development of data-driven, evidence-based strategies tailored to each city’s unique local needs.

Since 2005, West Memphis has had a violent crime problem considerably higher than the national average,1,2 due in part to its proximity to a large city, Memphis, Tennessee, and two major interstate thoroughfares, which are national avenues for drug and gun trafficking. The PSP team helped West Memphis address its violent crime challenges by building a comprehensive solution to support data-driven policing. Through a focused and coordinated effort, PSP helped the West Memphis Police Department (WMPD) develop a crime analysis capacity, data-driven crime reduction strategy, and police foundation, as well as strengthen federal law enforcement partnerships. On February 1, 2017, local and federal partner agencies kicked off Operation Data-Enhanced Targeted Enforcement and Restoration (DETER), the West Memphis PSP site’s strategy to reduce violent crime by focusing on decreasing interpersonal violent crimes (e.g., assault, robbery) and enhancing the use of data to drive policing responses. One year into the program, the West Memphis PSP site saw an overall decrease of 27 percent in DETER crimes in the DETER focus corridor. In the final year of engagement, the team improved community outreach and officer recruitment, and they developed a plan to sustain the violence reduction endeavors that were implemented through the PSP.

The West Memphis PSP site completed its tenure in the initiative in September 2018. PSP has helped change the police culture in West Memphis, and the police department is now a more data-driven organization. The long-term goals for West Memphis are to decrease crime and to increase trust and relationships between the police and the community.

Case Study

1 In 2013 and 2014, West Memphis Police Department reported violent crime rates similar to the national average, but violent crime rates rose again starting in 2015.

2 West Memphis and US data are from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Unified Crime Reporting (UCR) Program and extracted from https://crime-data-explorer.fr.cloud.gov/explorer/agency/AR0180100/crime/1995/2017.

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WEST MEMPHIS VIOLENT CRIME RATE

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Crime Analysis Software Platform

IDENTIFY AND DEVELOPSOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

REVIEW AND VETCANDIDATE VENDORS

PURCHASESOFTWARE

Field Contact Cards Database

Jail Management System

Intelligence Records

Computer Aided Dispatch System

Case Management System

Record Management System

• Data cleansing• Data integrity and

capacity improvements• Geocoding

INTEGRATE DATA SOURCESAND PREPARE DATA

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WMPD’S CRIME ANALYSIS PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Public Utilities Database

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STEP5Ad hoc queries

Dashboards

Weekly intelligence reports

Mobile Data TerminalsOfficers’ cell phones

WMPD Operation DETER

Areas of high crime (hot spots)Prolific violent offendersStrategies for reducing crime and rebuilding neighborhoods

OPERATION DETER INPUTS AND OUTPUTS

Violent crime data

Firearm possession crimes

Reports of shots fired

Criminal histories

Figure 1. West Memphis and US violent crime rates since 2004

The West Memphis Police Department experienced a 27

percent decrease in crime over one year, from February 2017

to February 2018.

Creating analytic capacities to develop and implement data-driven violent crime strategiesWest Memphis, ARKANSAS

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Crime Analysis Capacity BuildingThe development of crime analysis capabilities in WMPD is exemplar of the capacity building and organizational change PSP supports. Prior to PSP, West Memphis did not have a data analysis capability or a data analyst, and technological limitations were a significant barrier to conducting crime analysis. As a result, WMPD primarily responded to calls for service as they came in, rather than being proactive with their policing efforts. Early in its participation in PSP, WMPD identified improving crime analysis and data analytics as a key priority. This focus would help inform leadership about policing responses and build a violent crime reduction strategy.

WMPD now has a robust crime analysis capacity for an organization of its size, as well as an organizational commitment to crime analysis. WMPD centers its violent crime portfolio on Operation DETER, a data-driven policing strategy empowered by crime analysis that focuses on where crime is occurring, who is committing the crimes, and what steps can be taken to rebuild neighborhoods deeply impacted by violent crime. This section highlights WMPD’s journey to develop its analytic capacity.

Crime Analysis Capacity DevelopmentPrior to joining the PSP initiative, WMPD did not have a designated analyst to collect, process, analyze, and disseminate data for the department. Concordantly, the department did not have a formal meeting or crime trend review process to inform their policing strategies. This approach to policing changed after the September 2015 PSP Summit, where WMPD captains gained an understanding of the potential role that crime analysis could play in a comprehensive policing approach. Following the event, PSP supported a crime analysis assessment and intensive training and technical assistance (TTA) on the topic for the West Memphis PSP site.

By the end of 2015, WMPD identified a detective within the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) to serve as the first ever law enforcement analyst for WMPD. WMPD made several operational changes to formalize this position within the department, including restructuring the investigations unit. To help WMPD develop the analysis capability and position, and to better understand West Memphis’ crime problems, PSP subject experts performed an in-depth examination and analysis of WMPD’s crime data to allow the department to baseline crime strategies and begin addressing underlying crime trends within the city.3 PSP subject experts helped build a framework for data analytic capacity

Assessments:• Crime Analysis Capacity Assessment• Violence Analysis Assessment• Technology AssessmentPeer exchanges:• Camden, New Jersey• Los Angeles Police Department Crime

Fighters Conference• Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police

Department Real Time Crime Center• Arvada, Colorado, Police Department• Chicago Crime Fighters ConferenceTraining:• Naval Postgraduate School Social

Network Analysis Symposium• BJA SMART Suite Summit• 2016 and 2017 Problem-Oriented

Policing Conferences• 2017 and 2018 International Association

of Crime Analysts (IACA) Conference• IACA Tactical Crime Analysis Training• Criminal Intelligence Systems Online

Training (28 CFR Part 23)• BJA Drug Market Intervention training• USMS-coordinated joint criminal

intelligence analyst training• International Association of Directors

of Law Enforcement and BJA CrimeAnalysis for Chief Executives Training

• Foundations of Crime AnalysisTechnical assistance:• Developing policies and procedures for

analytical functions, processes, andpositions

• Evaluating and analyzing data• Establishing data dashboards and

evaluation routines• Cleansing and geocoding data• Identifying software requirements• Developing a grant strategy

Crime analysis TTA provided to

the West Memphis PSP Site

3 See the Operation DETER section for additional information on this analysis.

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within the department (e.g., how to track overall and DETER-zone crime in a standard 28-day cycle) and helped WMPD develop policies and procedures for analytical processes and positions.

In addition, PSP supported multiple peer exchanges, trainings, and technical assistances for the West Memphis PSP site to develop their analytical capacity (see the TTA table above). For example, PSP sent the WMPD analyst to the International Association of Crime Analysts’ Tactical Crime Analysis course. The analyst received 40 hours of training for new and aspiring analysts that focused on identifying, analyzing, and solving crime patterns and series. This course provided the analyst with hands-on learning on topics such as temporal analysis, crime bulletins and reports, spatial analysis, and Excel functions to develop crime statistics. This support helped the WMPD analyst develop the skills needed to comprehensively answer key questions about crime.

After the training, the WMPD law enforcement analyst began developing weekly reports on investigation crimes (e.g., burglaries, shootings, and assaults). During the initial development, the analyst shared these reports with WMPD leadership and CID detectives to determine the best layout of information and value-added for operations. To improve the type of data available, the WMPD analyst also implemented field contact cards, a common tool used by law enforcement to track police-citizen engagement and assist with investigative leads. Because these contacts are noncriminal, the analyst created paper forms for patrol. The WMPD analyst enters the information on the forms into an Excel document, providing another data source for analysis. With the weekly reports, WMPD created a standardized report format and reporting process for priority crimes. The reports inform both officers and external stakeholders (including the Mayor’s Office) of crime series, wanted individuals, and other crime information, and they help focus and direct resources for specific crime series or issues.

Crime Analysis Refinement and Platform DevelopmentWMPD next focused on developing a robust crime analysis system and software platforms to support case management and data analysis. A major manifestation of this was the purchase of the analytical software platform Lumen, hosted by the Numerica Corporation. WMPD also purchased additional case management software to improve their investigative work flow processes.

After reviewing and vetting software vendors, WMPD purchased the data analysis software to enable the department to access and integrate multiple internal data sources and data sources from regional partners; restructure the data for analysis; and perform person, place, or problem analysis through interactive dashboards. Because it integrates multiple data sources, the software is a one-stop shop for various information routinely queried by officers and investigators.

As part of the crime analysis software development process (see Figure 2), PSP and WMPD addressed data quality issues throughout the department—a key factor in being able to efficiently, effectively, and accurately develop crime analysis products to support policing operations. WMPD also implemented various procedures during supervisory review of reports to ensure the collected data was consistent. PSP and BJA National Training and Technical Assistance Center (NTTAC) assisted WMPD in the development of the crime analysis software by helping do the following:

“From no reporting to a comprehensive tactical document that highlights crime series, immediate crime concerns, temporal and spatial analysis—this demonstrates the success of PSP efforts.”— West Memphis PSP site team member

Ira Rountree promoted to sergeant in the Criminal Investigation Division and assigned to the crime analyst position

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• Identify WMPD’s requirements and vendors that provide analytical software;• Interface several data sources with the crime analysis software;• Establish the dashboards; • Replicate some of the manual data analysis performed at program inception in the software; • Conduct a review of routine data-review processes and develop WMPD’s data evaluation routines; • Conduct a review of WMPD’s data to discuss best practices in tracking crime events (citywide and within the DETER zone); • Support data integrity and data capacity improvements for WMPD to perform analysis on calls for service and reported crimes;• Geocode and cleanse data; • Deal with some common data issues (e.g., lack of a searchable field for the presence of a firearm at an incident); and• Enhance WMPD’s use of data.

In December 2016, the new crime analysis software was operational to support the development of the weekly intelligence reports. WMPD integrated all possible data sources with the platform by April 2017.4 To fully employ the platform in WMPD’s processes and operations, all licensed WMPD personnel (e.g., investigators, patrol, and command staff) received training on the platform. During the training, users worked hands-on with the analytical platform and queried information relevant to their roles and responsibilities. PSP also sent two WMPD personnel to a peer exchange with the Arvada, Colorado, Police Department (an early adopter of the platform) in 2017. Participants discussed using the platform for items such as sector briefs, operational

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Figure 2. The process PSP and WMPD used to develop the WMPD crime analysis platform

4 The PSP team determined that integration of one of the desired data sources, court data, was cost-prohibitive and limited by access rights.

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planning, patrols, and investigative analysis. WMPD learned that a strong implementation plan, agency-wide support, and proper training of personnel are necessary to establish a successful and sustainable technology expansion.

With PSP, WMPD now has a crime analysis capacity and system that allows them to review, track, and analyze crimes in multiple ways (e.g., offenses, incidents, and highest charge).

The organizational commitments to data analysis, investments in personnel capabilities and technology, and improvements in data collection also created the conditions to successfully deploy a data-driven policing strategy, Operation DETER.

Operation DETEROperation Data-Enhanced Targeted Enforcement and Restoration (DETER) is a strategy that integrates data collection and analysis, place- and offender-based policing tactics, and neighborhood restoration in the effort to reduce violent crime and social harm.

DETER DevelopmentTo develop its violent crime reduction strategy, the West Memphis PSP site received a number of PSP TTA resources, including technical assistance from the following subject experts:

• PSP Strategic Site Liaison Larry Larimore

• PSP Analyst Jessica Herbert• Officer Gamero of the

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)

• Research partner Dr. Craig Uchida, Justice & Security Strategies, Inc.

WMPD’s captains and investigative analyst collaborated with the PSP team on this effort.

To begin, SSL Larimore and Analyst Herbert performed a full violent crime assessment and analysis of West Memphis’ crime data to help the PSP site understand the local crime problem, including where the majority of crime was occurring and who the prolific offenders were. They emphasized crimes committed with weapons, unlawful firearms possession arrests, and shots-fired calls for service. Using this information, the West Memphis PSP site began to pursue place- and person-based strategies to focus their efforts on reducing violent crime. To help them understand these strategies, PSP sent WMPD personnel on a peer exchange to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) where they learned about LAPD’s BJA-funded Strategies for Policing Innovation (SPI) initiative, Operation Los Angeles’ Strategic Extraction and Restoration (LASER) program. Following the peer exchange and through PSP, WMPD asked Dr. Craig Uchida and Officer David Gamero (LAPD) to translate Operation LASER’s parameters to a scale that would fit West Memphis. In response, the team developed WMPD’s violence reduction strategy, Operation DETER, to focus on hot spot locations, chronic offenders, and neighborhood restoration. PSP also provided professional development and TTA to support WMPD’s strategy to enhance their officers’ and their department’s data-driven processes, including:

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Figure 3. Inputs for and outputs of WMPD’s Operation DETER

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• Investigation training hosted by the National Gang Center;• Peer exchanges with Denver Gun Intelligence Center, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, and BJA Innovations Suite Summit;• Train-the-trainer procedural justice course;• Assistance for WMPD instructors in developing customizable and repeatable training for entire department; and• Participation in the 2016 and 2017 Problem-Oriented Policing Conference.

Operation DETER makes use of problem-solving techniques, evidence-based strategies, rigorous data analyses, and evaluation to determine where crimes are occurring, who is committing the crimes, and what steps can be taken to rebuild neighborhoods plagued by violent crime. Operation DETER identifies and targets both hot spots and chronic offenders because WMPD wanted to ensure the crime was not being displaced by offenders moving into other areas. The team identified hot spots as places where three elements overlapped: violent crimes (e.g., murders, robberies, and aggravated assaults), firearms possession crimes (e.g., felons in possession of a firearm, use of prohibited weapons, furnishing a deadly weapon to a minor, etc.), and calls to the police department reporting gunshots fired. Dr. Uchida and Officer Gamero also helped WMPD with chronic offender selection and contact protocol. The team identified chronic offenders through the frequency of their contacts with the police department, their criminal history of committing violent crimes and unlawful weapons possession, their gang involvement, and whether individuals are on parole or probation.

South Avalon CorridorWMPD identified the South Avalon corridor as the area to pilot and to first implement Operation DETER. The South Avalon corridor is approximately a half a mile square,5 representing only 2 percent of the city’s land mass. Despite its size, it contributed over 9 percent of targeted violent crimes and 7 percent of unlawful firearm possessions between 2013 and 2016, and it contributed 8 percent of gunshots-fired calls for service in the city between 2004 and 2006. If proven successful, the WMPD plans to expand this strategy to the city’s remaining hot spots.

DETER ImplementationOn February 1, 2017, West Memphis kicked off Operation DETER. WMPD initiated the targeted chronic offender component of the program by sending letters to the top ten chronic violent offenders in the DETER area. The letters offered programs to help turn their lives around and noted that if they reoffend they

Figure 4. Example West Memphis Police Department Intelligence Product

5 The pilot area is approximately 0.59 square miles with a 3.2 mile parameter on South Avalon corridor to Woods Street, north from Tyler Avenue to Cole Street.

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would receive stiffer punishments. Chronic offenders are monitored for criminal activity by WMPD and county, state, and federal criminal justice system partners, and they are offered supportive services to help offenders become more productive members of their family and community. In the South Avalon corridor hot spot, officers proactively patrol the area and make lawful contacts with residents and travelers, focusing on days of the week and times of day in which incidents are more frequent. WMPD’s federal partners and probation officers also assist with directed patrols and enforcement activities in the DETER focus area. To implement DETER, WMPD changed its patrol schedules from 10-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts to increase staffing during times of day with more incidents of violent crime, shots fired, and calls for service.

Key to the DETER model is the internal collaboration with patrol and investigative units, enabled through data analysis and the law enforcement analyst. The PSP analyst worked with the WMPD law enforcement analyst on routine data collection and measures for operational goals. The PSP team also provided WMPD with a framework for tracking all crime and DETER-zone-only crime within a standard 28-day cycle for crime reporting. At various points through the project (pre-implementation and 9, 12, and 18 months post-implementation), the PSP site team conducted a comprehensive data analysis for Operation DETER. These analyses included a comparison of West Memphis’ violent crime with crime in other similarly sized cities in Arkansas and in other PSP sites, a four-year temporal and spatial analysis of its reported crimes, a three-year temporal and spatial analysis of shots-fired calls for service, and an evaluation of crime types for specific areas within the city. The WMPD law enforcement analyst supported these analyses with the crime analysis platform, analytical techniques, evaluation of offender characteristics, and data presentation.

Engaging the CommunityThrough Operation DETER, WMPD realized a foundational component of effective policing was community engagement. WMPD therefore established a primary goal of increasing trust and relationships between the police and the community. Through the support of PSP and as part of Operation DETER, WMPD developed a number of mechanisms to engage the community for both financial support (e.g., development of a police foundation) and to increase community relationships.

Community RelationshipsPrior to PSP, WMPD participated in few community outreach efforts and had no social media presence. With PSP and Operation DETER, WMPD worked to grow their community outreach efforts to address violent crime and provide services to the community. Within Operation DETER, WMPD works with school board representatives to identify safety concerns, and they work with housing development to assist with neighborhood restoration efforts. In September 2016, WMPD was awarded a COPS Hiring Program grant. WMPD used this grant to create its first community outreach officer position and hire a civilian community liaison. These individuals work with the WMPD, WMPF,

The West Memphis PSP site requested assistance to develop a police foundation and processes for receiving private donations and funding from local businesses to support technology and other policing needs. In response, PSP helped West Memphis develop the West Memphis Police Foundation (WMPF) through on- and off-site TTA and the assistance of a police foundation subject expert, Pam Delaney. The PSP team provided the West Memphis PSP site recommendations on how to develop and sustain a police foundation, such as providing best practices of successful police foundations; creating a database of community organizations, businesses, associations, and other entities with a stake in West Memphis; developing a cost-sharing, sustainable plan for WMPD’s efforts and initial procurements; creating a “wish list” of projects and needs; and developing a communications strategy that includes the media to engage the community. The first board meeting for the WMPF was held in April 2017, and the foundation officially launched in the fall of 2017. Its inaugural effort is obtaining funding for a 6,000-square-foot firing range and training facility for the police department.

the west memphis

police foundation

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business owners, and other stakeholders to support outreach efforts and prosocial activities and assist in the coordination of resources and services for youth programs. Since the creation of these positions, WMPD has conducted outreach to the local school board, the community college, the Arkansas State University campus, and other community organizations to support events, coordinate services, and produce positive interactions. Through the WMPF, the West Memphis PSP site hopes to expand events and community-supported projects.

To help engage the public through social media, PSP supported the following activities for WMPD:

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) DigitalImaging Video Response Team (DIVRT)training in December 2015;

• Helping WMPD establish a WMPD YouTubechannel and increase activity on the WMPDFacebook page; and

• The Assistant US Attorney for the EasternDistrict of Arkansas WMPD provided mediatraining in October 2016.

Today, WMPD leverages social media forums to solicit information and tips from residents about crimes (e.g., posting about people of interest), provide information about crime and safety in the city (e.g., public service announcements, media articles, and crime alerts), announce violent crime strategies and restoration of neighborhoods within the city (e.g., Operation DETER); and inform the public about other departmental activities (e.g., videos of event highlights, police department presentations at city hall, press conferences, media interviews, dash camera videos, information on community meetings and events). The WMPD Facebook page now has over 7,500 followers.

West Memphis PSP Impacts

WMPD’s Facebook post about Operation DETER

Six months into Operation DETER, WMPD had already achieved a number of successes. The city council demonstrated support via the local newspaper and by having the city and county zoning officials assist with the restoration aspect of the project. Law enforcement reported that

“West Memphis Police Department is a different, better police department than they were three years ago. PSP has given them a different mindset.”— West Memphis Strategic Site Liaison, Larry Larimore

that the community was taking notice of the changes and was aware of WMPD’s efforts to clean up the area. Operation DETER brought the Crittenden County Probation, the Housing Department, and school officials together to address crime and increase safety in the targeted operational area, and these partnerships have assisted with grant-writing strategies. Nine months after implementation (November 2017), WMPD reported a decrease in violent crime (e.g., aggravated assaults, homicide, robbery) of over 16 percent in the targeted area. One year into the program (February 2018), West Memphis saw a decrease in targeted DETER crimes (e.g., weapon possession offenses, simple assaults, domestic violence assaults and batteries in addition to the “violent” offenses) of 27 percent in the targeted South Avalon corridor. WMPD’s Operation DETER research partner, with the support of the West Memphis PSP site, is working to further analyze data within the DETER zone to capture total crime and community effects. Moving into the second year of Operation DETER, the West Memphis PSP site will continue to work on sustaining this success. The PSP site is also considering deploying a similar model in other areas of the city.

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Key Lessons for Success

UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM: Using crime analysis to understand the crime and crime patterns in West Memphis was instrumental in demonstrating the value of crime analysis to WMPD and in the PSP site’s approach to DETER. By targeting an area in which a disproportionate amount of crime was occurring and targeting chronic offenders, WMPD effectively used the resources of a smaller agency to combat a significant violent crime problem.

UNDERSTAND THE RESOURCES—PERSONNEL, DATA, AND TECHNOLOGY—NEEDED TO IMPLEMENT A CRIME ANALYSIS CAPACITY: For personnel resources, a department needs to understand their internal and external capacity, whether personnel will share roles and resources with other cities and counties, and if the departments need to hire additional personnel. For data resources, both the sources and the quality of data sources need to be considered, and agencies should look for sources from their agency, regional criminal justice partners, local businesses, housing organizations and authorities, and the community. High-quality data is imperative for accurate analyses. For technology resources, departments should consider both hardware and software, develop a strategic plan for long-term investments in technology (prioritizing “needs” and “wants”), and “test drive” all technology.

COMMIT ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION: Developing a strong crime analysis capacity required commitment from all levels within WMPD. For example, WMPD leadership committed to long-term funding for crime analysts and supporting technology. The chief of police assigned captains to work with the PSP, thereby likely influencing future WMPD leadership. Field officers have embraced the use of the crime analysis products and provided feedback on their utility to the developers. Supervisors and line-level patrol men format entries into reporting software and CAD to ensure they receive searchable, accurate data and results from the searches. The detective division helps clean up any data inputted incorrectly and identifies missing data. The shared ownership and “buy-in” across the organization will also help with sustainability.

IDENTIFY ANALYTICAL EXPECTATIONS FOR CRIME ANALYSIS: Understanding how the department wants to use crime analysis (i.e., agency objectives) should influence the development of the program. For example, will the analysis be tactical or strategic, provide support for patrol, or provide support for investigations?

COMMIT TO ANALYST DEVELOPMENT: WMPD realized the need to commit to the long-term professional development and education of crime analysts. This commitment should include funding for the program, technology, and analyst training. Having a designated analyst allowed WMPD to maintain program continuity; the analyst also advocated for and trained the rest of the department on crime analysis.

PLAN FOR DATA INTEGRATION: WMPD learned that understanding the data requirements for integration through detailed planning can help streamline the integration of data into software systems. For West Memphis, integration of all the data sources took approximately one year due to the number of sources, requirements to translate or transform data, and access rights to the data. Most external data sources required a Memorandum of Understanding or a policy and procedure to make sure the data was secure and would not be used inappropriately. WMPD believes this timeline could have been shortened if they better understood the data prior to the integration effort.

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COORDINATE PSP SUPPORT AND ASSISTANCE: Support from PSP was instrumental in developing and implementing WMPD’s crime analysis capacity and Operation DETER. PSP targeted these goals with resources, which focused and coordinated efforts across the department and the PSP site. The PSP strategic site liaison (SSL) and PSP analyst were also critical in this effort because they leveraged their expertise in crime analysis to guide WMPD to develop a comprehensive approach and program.

SUSTAIN PROGRESS: Though it is too early to determine whether the West Memphis PSP approach will maintain its success over time and through inevitable leadership changes, the PSP partners are already discussing what needs to be done to ensure sustainability, including ensuring organizational awareness of the initiative and encouraging the engagement and involvement of the PSP partners. As with any new initiative, sustainability will be a challenge. This is especially so in policing because leadership in state, local, and federal agencies can be very transient and missions and operations change easily. WMPD is confident that crime analysis has become embedded in its approach to reduce violent crime and is making efforts to train additional personnel in crime analysis. WMPD also plans to continue the regularly scheduled calls with federal and regional PSP partners to help sustain efforts moving forward.

Applying Lessons from West MemphisLaw enforcement agencies typically welcome the opportunity to learn from each other; however, they often believe that other departments’ approaches will not be applicable to their agency. This may be true in many cases, but no matter the size, the crime rate, the staffing and resource capacity, or the budgets, the West Memphis PSP strategy should be adoptable for most agencies, just as LAPD’s LASER strategy was adoptable for West Memphis. The West Memphis PSP site agrees with this sentiment. The WMPD sees Operation DETER as a small-town adaption of Operation LASER. If the approach proves successful, the department would help teach other communities how to adapt it to their municipalities.6

The West Memphis PSP approach and violent crime strategy do not represent fundamental changes in current law enforcement practices; they merely refine and focus resources and collaborative strategies on a specific geographic area and on offenders driving the crime. Establishing a mutual goal among local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies can result in the positive impacts that have been realized in West Memphis. The West Memphis PSP strategy provides an enhanced capability for law enforcement partners to collaborate on violent crime reduction strategies through improving communication, providing opportunities for networking, and evaluating measurable outcomes.

6 Adapted from https://deltanewsservice.com/2017/02/27/operation-d-e-t-e-r-causes-mixed-reaction/

“We will not implement change that we cannot sustain.”— Captain Joe Baker, WMPD

The Community Outreach Coordinator assisting the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas with their quarterly distribution

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